Ecological Deteriotion in Central-West Brazil.
Between 2019 and 2024, Brazil’s Central-West region recorded some of the world’s sharpest deteriorations in overall ETR score, aggravated by exceptionally bad wildfires in 2024. The region encompasses the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Goiás, with Mato Grosso registering the second largest increase in ecological threat of any subnational area worldwide (after Manouba in Tunisia). Rising risks of natural events, water scarcity, and food insecurity have driven much of this deterioration. The impact of natural events was most severe in Mato Grosso, which recorded the largest deterioration nationwide since 2019. In 2024, the state experienced an exceptionally severe wildfire season , with nearly 3,900 hotspots detected in the Pantanal biome during the first half of the year – more than 16 times the number observed in the same period of 2023.6 These fires burned over 7,200 square kilometres in Mato Grosso and neighbouring Mato Grosso do Sul, the worst conditions ev...